Model Railway Baseboard

Model Railway Baseboard

What Is The Best Baseboard Material For Model Railways?

For a beginner there are many choices when it comes to deciding on the material for a model railway baseboard. For instance there is medium density fibreboard (MDF), plywood, Sundeala hobby boards, soft board, molded expanded polystyrene foam (MEPS), extruded expanded polystyrene foam (EXPS) etc. Many of these are ideal for your model railway and in many cases the choice will be on what is available but if you have a choice then which of these would you use for your model railway baseboard.

First of all we have plywood and MEPS. Plywood is an engineered board and is made from thin sheets of woods. The layers are glued together with the grain of each layer at a 90 degree angle to the previous layer. You will normally find an odd number of layers and the outside layers both had the grain running in the same direction to minimise warping. The adhesive used is usually a formaldehyde derivative and thus a mask should be worn whenever cutting or shaping plywood. MEPS is also an engineered wood product which is formed by breaking down softwood into wood fibres. These fibres are combined with wax and a resin and then formed into boards. Again the same problem with of possible release of formaldehyde exists when cutting MEPS. When it comes to cutting both MEPS and Plywood you will need to invest in power tools such as a drill and a jigsaw. As for the model railway baseboard you will find that these products will serve you will as they are very strong and have no tendency to split or warp but you will need the power tools and potentially the products can be heavy if you need to move your model railway baseboard.

Sundeala is a product available in the UK which is becoming popular for Hobbyists. The boards are made from recycled newspapers and are used for numerous purposes including displays, white boards, pin boards, packaging and model railway baseboards. These baseboards are very soft and can be modelled with a strong knife so there is no need for the power tools but the flip side you made find the fitting of point motors underneath the surface very difficult as there is not much grip and the motors do have a tendency to fall off. Soft boards can be categorised with the Sundeala product in respects of the ability to mould it and the fitting of points underneath. These products are likely to make great model railway baseboards as they are light and easy to work with but you may have to put up with having surface mounted point motors rather than fitting them under the track.

Particle board (chipboard) is another engineered wood product made from wood particles such as wood chips, sawmill shavings and sawdust!. A synthetic resin is added and the batch is pressed and then passed through an extruder. The resulting product is cheaper, denser and more uniform that conventional wood and plywood whilst also being very light. Particle board is the weakest type of fibre board and can be prone to collecting moisture unless properly sealed. If you are going to use this, therefore, it is essential that you use a sealant on the board so that it reduces warp.

Finally we have foam boards which are becoming very popular with modellers as you can use it to construct your model railway baseboard and then also use it to build mountains and other scenery. The MEPS and XEPS are both close-cell materials. The common use for MEPS is for everyday items such as coffee cups or packaging materials although you can large insulation sheet which is also known as beadboard. XEPS is, however, more popular for model railway baseboards as it has a higher strength and has excellent resistance to moisture absorption. The panels come in a variety of thicknesses so you can build up various sizes for your mountains and then cut off pieces to make the results more lifelike.

As you can see from the run down above there are many materials that will make excellent model railway baseboards and ultimately your choice will depend upon the conditions you are modelling in and the cost of the product. The extruded foam for example may look like the perfect material but this may not be that easy to get hold of so you may have to compromise on your material for your model railway baseboard.